Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has knocked Daniel Bwala, the special adviser on policy communication to President Bola Tinubu, following a disagreement over the state of governance and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
El-Rufai was reported on Monday to have taken a swipe at his party, APC, accusing it of abandoning its founding principles and fostering poor leadership while addressing a national conference in Abuja on strengthening democracy in Nigeria.
He lamented the alleged lack of internal democracy and active party structures within the APC, saying, “I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years—no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.”
Reacting to El-Rufai’s post, Bwala questioned the former governor’s stance, asking if he would have held the same position were he part of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.
“My Senior brother, if you were to be in the government and cabinet, would you have held and expressed the same position? History is replete with examples.
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“It is a government you participated in its formation, that you now want to unseat. Haba Mallam, a Ji soron Allah mana,” Bwala wrote.
In his response on Thursday, El-Rufai dismissed Bwala’s remarks in a post on X.com, stating that he had no interest in joining Tinubu’s government.
“I was a cabinet minister 22 years ago and made it clear to Asiwaju that I was not interested in any position in his future government.
“The manner in which you, latter-day converts to the Tinubu government, make an issue of something I never wanted in the first place reflects the level of your moral flexibility,” El-Rufai said.
The former governor insisted that his position on the APC and Tinubu’s administration would have remained the same, even if he had been part of the government.
“If I had remained in the Tinubu government, I would still speak out about the tragedy within a party I helped found, and the government that emerged from it—first privately with those concerned, and then publicly if no remedial actions were taken,” he added.
El-Rufai also took a swipe at political loyalists, whom he accused of being paid to defend the government at all costs.
“I am responding to you because I still think you are a decent person who may need a job, not in the class of Wendell Simlin or that Kaduna pretender whom our voters retired in 2019.
“These clowns are political mercenaries who receive humongous monthly stipends from the security vote to be the first to jump on X and other platforms to defend everything the Asiwaju government does or fails to do, no matter how indefensible it may be,” he said.
He concluded by advising Bwala to remember that allegiance to God and country should come before loyalty to any individual or authority.
“Enjoy your special adviser position, my brother, but remember that allegiance to God and country comes first in the human scale of accountability, before any person or authority,” El-Rufai wrote.
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